Thought about going for the old if you can't say something nice then don't say anything at all tact. It's kind of what I was hoping it wouldn't be. If the first five minutes were chopped off and replaced with the last minute stretched into six I might enjoy it a bit more. I have no inclination to listen to it again but I might follow Klaw's tact and give it another crack or two.

Still looking forward to the album, but enthusiasm for the EP has waned a little bit.

_________________I am disabled by fears concerning which course to take.

Im digging it. Must have listened to it 100 times in the last 3 days heh.
Its definitely Godflesh.. Definitely a 'Selfless meets Us And Them' vibe..
It sounds 'old' too, and the choice of chords he uses, like this is where Jesu might have gone after Heart Ache..

Anyway, SOLAH is perhaps the record where Brian Mantia sounds best. His drumming at Primus was perhaps the best part of Primus, heh. Never liked Primus, too meatless (fleshless?).

Having been involved with some drum sampler making and mixing with drum samplers, the whole notion of drum machine+human is genial really.

If there's anything JK & Co. ought to try, it's some new drum samples and get the drummer to record hybrid perhaps - playing snare/BD samples off drum pads and live cymbals/hi-hat. The reason for this being, samples are always processed to sound powerful, and as JKB himself mentions in that Chicago producer interview, he used to layer samples for Godflesh albums.

The one bit of Jesu that often sounds too weak is the drums. Getting that right punchy/powerful snare or kick can be a nightmare (in terms of processing/acoustic and microphone setup, etc.), and the few Jesu tracks which were done with drum samples actually sound moody, like old Godflesh songs.

The "Ringer" track sounds like Godflesh from the 90s. Sampled drums are back, which is nice. This might be something from the 90s anyway, as Benny said... Or not. They've been playing Streetcleaner a lot live, so if this is new, then it's sorta obvious they've influenced themselves, heh.

It's lovely, but the voice could use more of a drowning/distant reverb.

and the few Jesu tracks which were done with drum samples actually sound moody, like old Godflesh songs.

Is not the majority of Jesu percussion samples and programming? I believe Ted Parsons played on the earlier albums and EPs and then the rest of the output, which is the greater part, is all programming.

Ted plays on the Self-Titled, Conqueror and is credited for only Silver on the EP.

Justin himself played drums on a couple of the remixed EP cuts from Why Are We Not Perfect? EP [same cuts as the Eluvium split but remixed, Japanese release has all 3, US only had 2 of the remixes). And I'm pretty some of the drumming on Opiate Sun is JKB live.

Joined: 04 Sep 2006
Posts: 1849
Location: In the land of the silver fern

JKB wrote:

GODFLESH 'Decline & Fall' EP on Avalanche Recordings can be bought across most the UK and EU on CD as of today, vinyl June 9th! We will have CD & Digital (digital with 2 hidden bonus dubs found only on the Japanese domestic CD release on Daymare, digital as MP3, 24bit FLAC, etc) on the Avalanche Recs. Bandcamp store page next week, hopefully June 2nd. We will have approx. 200 CD's and around a week later if not earlier approx. 200 vinyl, if bought directly from us the digital comes free. Digital will also be available from all the usual outlets (itunes, emusic, rdio, spotify, etc etc) on June 2nd worldwide, the bonus tracks are ONLY available from Avalanche Recs. Bandcamp store. USA and Rest Of World CD & Vinyl release is June 24th. Can also be pre-ordered from Amazon.com, etc for decent domestic prices.

via JKB's FB page...

Hmmm... only 200 copies available through bandcamp. I may try my luck and pick it up on vinyl whilst in the EU over the next two months.

That sort of thing gives me insight into the masses' compulsion to blab into mobile phones 24/7 -- they simply have to say something, anything, no matter how stupid or banal, out of fear that if they just sit quietly with themselves and their thoughts they'll suddenly cease to exist.

The self-etched is only in the Taiwanese Bandcamp store I'm afraid. Good news is it's a limited run of 1,500,000, mass etched by the Taiwanese Justin Broadrick Lookalike Club.

Well. If anybody has yet to listen to these samples with a pair of good headphones I would recommend doing so. I had a few listens with some earphones which didn't convey at all the bottom end present here. Certainly makes a difference, although I still haven't taken to Ringer I don't dislike it that much now. The third of the Boomkat samples sounds pretty darn good. There is hope yet!

_________________I am disabled by fears concerning which course to take.